Reverse Genesis
Welcome to Earth, in 2300. Human impact has destroyed most of the biosphere, the icecaps have melted and nuclear war has been fought. Few humans have survived, and those that have are fighting for survival in a world with a polluted atmosphere, little food, and deadly creatures. =Timeline= 2050: Science creates a genetically modified Komodo dragon as a bodyguard for the rich. This creature has erect limbs, a gorgonopsid like head and endothermy. They are simply known either as "Reptiles" or "Guard dragons". Many go feral and kill many people. They also have a high radiation tolerance. 2110: World War 3 starts. 700 million people are killed in the first year alone, with the advantages of nuclear weapons. 2111: The United Nations breaks apart and ends. The war claims the lives of 2.3 billion people. 2115: Pollution and nuclear war kills 3/4 of all plant species, and 1/2 of the animals. 5 billion of the 12 billion people on Earth are dead. 2117: World War 3 ends, killing 8 billion people in total. 2150: The New United Nations forms. Feral guard dragons kill even more people. Most cities now exist in domes to keep out nuclear fallout and pollution. Forests are gone, replaced by domed urban jungles. No surviving fish or mammal species is over 5 meters, and most are much smaller. Crows develop weapons made from discarded knives. 2200: Cockroaches, triops, rats, scorpions, shark fillets, guard dragon meat, soy and fungus makes up a majority of the worlds diet. 2210: Amphibians become extinct. 2290: AIDS outbreak kills most of the human population. Trees are almost completely gone. 2300: This story begins. =Chapter 1= Michael woke up in his apartment. Even though he was just 10 years old, he was alone. His parents died last year in an elevator collapse while looking for resources. He had never seen another persons face since then. Cockroaches, scorpions, rats and geckos infested his home, and these became his main food source. Michael caught a cockroach and ate it. 9 months without seeing another person made him emotionally and mentally scarred. A guard dragon nearly caught him just a few days ago. But it was time to move on. He exited his apartment and went out onto the street. It was filled with skeletons, rats and snakes. But he got used to those long ago. The boy walked through the streets and went to the nearby river to collect water. As he gathered water however, a grey fin broke the surface without him noticing. A bull shark. The fish lunged at the boy, barely missing him. Bull sharks were a relatively common sight in this river. As the boy walked through the street again, he heard something. Caw! It was the crows. The black fiend attempted to drop a knife on him with it's beak, but the bird missed. It swooped down and attacked his face. His screaming frightened it off, but Michael had a huge cut on his cheek. That would leave a permanent scar, for sure. He heard the growls of guard dragons as well, so he went back into his apartment. He drank some water and sat down, playing chess with a rock. The rock was his friend, even though it wasn't alive. The rock had a fossil ammonite in it. Suddenly, he heard a hiss, and a rattle. It was his pet rattlesnake, named "Johnny". The snake ate the rats that stole his food. Michael sighed. __________________________________________________________________________________ "Come on, come on! We haven't got all day!" said a man in a raft. The raft was in the middle of the shark infested river. The man was speaking to his wife. The couple had just discovered this domed city through a hole in it's dome. The couple was looking for resources. They knew that bull sharks lived in this river, and several were butting the raft with their round heads. After a few minutes, the couple were on the shore, with an unpleasant surprise. Guard dragons! The lizards circled the couple. "Alex, do you really know what you're doing?", the woman said. Alex, the man, jumped onto one of the dragons and stabbed it to death, but the other pounced on his back. Alex stabbed the beast through it's head, killing it instantly. The couple sat on the corpses for a while, eating triops sandwiches. But scavengers quickly came. Not just rats, but also a large coyote and a Haasts eagle sized crow. The scavengers quickly turned on Alex and his wife. Alex used his knife on the coyote and killed it, but the giant crow pecked at his head, splitting it. The pain was intense, but Alex and his wife ran as fast as they could, until they reached an apartment and entered. __________________________________________________________________________________ Suddenly, Michael heard footsteps from downstairs. His snake slid under the bed. The boy hid under as well, but seconds later, he heard speech. People! He ran down the stairs, much to the shock of the people. It was Alex and his wife. "Hello, little kid. My name is Alice." said the woman. "And hi, my name is Alex." Alex said. Michael was shocked. "I haven't seen any people since my parents died last year." he said. But the peace was broken by the huge crow, which flew inside the building and attacked Alice. Michael punched the crow in the face, making one of it's eyes fall out. The crow flew away in pain, but Alice had huge bite marks and cuts on her face, and a gigantic wound on her shoulder. There was no doubt that predators would smell this, guard dragons in particular. The group shut every window, and locked every door. Alex stocked up on as many guns as he could while Alice covered her own wounds. There were already 10 guard dragons outside the building, so the couple hid beneath furniture while Michael raced under his bed with "Johnny", and also took the ammonite with him. One dragon headbutted the door several times, making a huge hole in it. One by one, guard dragons walked all over the apartment reception desk, then the rooms. Michael, Alex and Alice stayed as quiet as possible. But they smelt the couple, and knocked the furniture over. Alex immediately started shooting with his shotgun, killing 4 of the reptiles. All of a sudden, Michael threw a propane tank, setting it off. A huge fire cooked the dragons while Alex and Alice ran out the back door. Michael ran down the stairs with his snake and ammonite. Alex, Alice and Michael ran into an old takeaway store. =Chapter 2= "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" roared Alex, talking to Michael. "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US ALL!" Alex continued. "I was killing the dragons." Michael said sheepishly. Johnny suddenly slithered out of Michael's jacket. Alex and Alice yelled loudly. "This is Johnny, my pet rattlesnake." Michael said. Suddenly, the group noticed that something was crawling under the floor. They heard slithering and squirming. Then they realized that there was a canal running under the city, this takeaway store being no exception. After another 5 seconds, a huge fish broke out of the floor, flooding part of the building. A gigantic snakehead, at least as large as a car. The fish used it's fins to crawl along the floor, advancing towards Alice. The mouth opened, revealing gigantic teeth as big as Alex's hand. Alex pulled out his shotgun, and fired at the fish's mouth and skull, killing it in a few shots. The blood leaked into the water, attracting another snakehead that was even bigger than the last one, at 4.5 meters long. The fish smashed the concrete pillars that supported the building, making the floor collapse. The group were in the water. Michael and Alex swam out and went onto the stairs, but Alice dissapeared. After only 10 seconds, the fish jumped onto the staircase, with Alice in it's mouth. The woman was screaming. Alex pulled out his shotgun, but he was out of ammo. "Shit." he said. Johnny slithered up the stairs while Alex and Michael pulled Alice out of the fish's mouth. Alice was pulled out, screaming in intense agony. While the group ran up the stairs, the fish followed them by crawling. Alex found something, a grenade. He threw the bomb at the fish, blowing it up and sending pieces of flesh and bone flying into the air. The group decided to sleep upstairs for a while. Johnny curled up and slept, while Michael slept with the snake. Alex and Alice both slept under a chair. This would be their new home. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ In the evening, they woke up. Something was splashing in the water. Alex went down to investigate. It turned out to be an alligator! The crocodillian was eating one of the dead snakeheads. Then it turned out that there were lots of other alligators in the area. There were also some huge snakeheads, bull sharks and smooth hammerheads in the area. It seems that the decision to make this place their new home was suicidal, as this was now a predators paradise. Alex then heard something walking on the street. It was a human being with a bow. The human saw Alex, and tried to fire an arrow at him. The arrow missed, but it was on fire meaning that it caused an inferno on the staircase. Alex ran up the stairs and got Alice, Michael and Johnny. The group deliberated about jumping out the window at first, but they quickly realized that the fire was going to burn down the building. They jumped and hit the canal. As they surfaced, they realized that a whole band of savage people with bows and spears were surrounding them. And they saw the chief, a 7 foot tall man, with a huge crow on his shoulder. The crow only had a single eye. It was the same crow that attacked them earlier. The savage barbarians also had guard dragons. The chief pulled Alex, Alice, Johnny and Michael out of the water. It turned out that they were friendly. "Sorry for the incident. One of our archers though that you were an animal." he said in an embarrased voice. "And that crow, he must have thought that you were prey." he continued. "Come with us, our village is in the mountains over there." he said. =Chapter 3= The huge group marched on towards the village. The land they were walking on was barren, with the only plant life being a small bush. Scorpions and spiders were seen crawling among the rocks, and these were the only animals they saw, other than Johnny, the chiefs pet crow and the pet guard dragons of course. As they were coming towards the mountains where the village was, they began to see more plant life. They even saw a couple of trees. There were also more animals, with many insects crawling and flying around them. This was one of the last fertile regions on Earth. They finally reached the village soon after. By the time they were there, it was dark. Alex saw crops being grown, and chickens running around. But Michael saw that Alice was limping and vomiting. She needed medical attention. Pus was coming out of her waist, and Alex realized that this was the result of the snakehead attack. They rushed her to the medical center of the village, where the doctors would treat her wounds. Meanwhile, something horrible was coming towards the village. It was a genetically modified sandfish, that was made to be 10 meters long, and it had a shark like dorsal fin. It swam in the dirt, uprooting trees and making holes in the mud. It was advancing towards the village, FAST. Nobody saw it, until Alex heard a scream. It was one of the villagers, who had been dragged underground by something. Then the fin appeared. Alex raised the alarm, but then the sandfish had already jumped out of the ground, with a human torso in it's mouth. Then, another sandfish appeared. This one was bigger, at 12 meters long. The peaceful village had become a bloodbath. The village chief pulled out his shotgun, and targeted it at the largest one. He shot off it's fin, making it hiss in pain. He shot it again in the head, killing it. This scared the smaller one off. "In case you haven't noticed, my name is William" the chief said. As the morning came, the village slept. In the afternoon, Alice woke up. The doctors did a good job on her waist. The infection was already practically gone. Michael picked out some good crops that he and his new foster parents would have for dinner. William gave Johnny a mouse to eat. Life in the village was no picnic though, as last night proved. The genetically modified sandfish were common around these mountains, as were giant crows and bats. And just by luck, some giant crows were nesting near the village. "We tried our best to get rid of them, but they keep coming back." one of the village warriors said. After a few minutes, Alex and Michael decided to explore a cave nearby. =Chapter 4= Alex and Michael explored the limestone cave. The walls were filled with fossil trilobites and brachiopods, as well as crinoids. The cave also had a subterranean lake, which had some cavefish in it. Michael collected some of the fossils, and went fishing in the subterranean lake. He caught a large cavefish, and decided that it would be part of tonight's tribal meal. These tribal meals happened once a week, and tonight was going to be the largest one in a while. The cave had a colony of cave spiders, which was interesting to Michael. As soon as they got back to the village, William gasped at the size of the cavefish. It was the biggest he had ever seen. But they had to hurry up and get the tribal dinner started. Crops were picked, tables were set, fish and lobsters were rushed to pots and chickens were killed and plucked. The meal started, and the entire village had a huge feast. Johnny got some high quality boiled mice, while the newcomers were given only the best meat. Huge drinks of water and gingerbeer went down the throats of the villagers, and at last, the dessert came. Gigantic fruit salads and fruit juice were on large plates, waiting to be served. This was going to be a great life here. Alex and Michael ate their dessert, while Alice read a book. However, the peace was broken as a pack of giant bats attacked the village. The bats attacked everybody, and the village was covered in a black swarm as everybody ran for cover, and Alex remembered the cave. While being chased by bats, he got everyone to get into the limestone cave, where the bats couldn't follow. William followed Alex into the cave, along with the rest of the village. The entrance into the cave was so small that the gigantic bats would not fit. The bats flew away from the cave, but Michael watched in horror from the entrance as the bats destroyed the buildings and turned them into nests. The villagers and their pets would have to make the cave their new home. Johnny curled up and slept, tired from being shaken inside Alice's jacket. The villagers only had a few bits of material to build stuff in the cave from. However, as the bats were making the village their territory, Alex gathered some wood from outside, as well as a large rock. The cave would be their new village. As Alex was gathering more material, he saw a terrifying sight: A huge pack of guard dragons heading towards the cave entrance, hungry for meat. He pulled out a pistol, but there were only 3 bullets in it. He alerted the others. To be continued... Category:Stories Category:Monster Takeover